Chapter 15 - Agency
The McArdle Household - Maidenfair (2 weeks ago)
The BFA agent leafed through the sheets on his clipboard as the van pulled up. Normally the jobs they were sent on had one or two sheets of paper for records but this place had ten. Page after page, after page of past and present data, and a dense summary sheet that nearly made him glaze over mentally. Once he'd leafed through he looked at the neighbourhood they were in, and the house they were in front of.
Holding the clipboard in one hand he scratched his head with the other, giving the building another quizzical look before turning to his partner. "Steve, there is no chance in hell this is the place." he said. "The amount of records here suggest a full on breeding facility. This is..."
"Any other house on any other street?" replied his partner, a dark skinned man with tightly shaved hair and beard whose grey nature spoke to him being around 50.
"Well yeah..." answered the first agent, a scrawny man in his early 20s with short neat sandy hair.
"Yeah, I thought the same the first time. I came here too. Tell you what Ethan, we'll say we're here for an inspection, get Jock to give you the tour."
The younger agent sighed and looked at the clipboard again. "This is a joke, it has to be a joke, you're messing with me." he said incredulously.
"Like I said, we'll get you the tour. Jock occasionally gives free samples if he's in a good mood." replied Steve undoing his seatbelt, and making sure the vehicle tracker was broadcasting before opening the door a little and waiting for Ethan's reply.
"Fine, let's get this over with."
The house in question looked like the average single floor family home in the suburbs of Maidenfair. It was well kept, boringly beige with a terracotta tile roof. Ethan looked at it once more. It didn't make a lick of sense, this had to be a sting from the guys back at the Bureau. They were probably watching from a nearby camera and howling with laughter at the thought of it.
The two men exited the van and made their way up the path that split the manicured lawn in half and into the relative shade of the porch. Ethan, clipboard in hand, pressed the buzzer on the front of the house. The door opened a few seconds later. In front of him stood a girl with short black hair wearing a baggy black top, and dark grey skinny jeans. She scowled as soon as she saw the BFA man which put Ethan more than a little on edge, most women saw a BFA badge and looked like they wanted to run for the hills.
"Gemma McArdle?" Ethan asked, reading off the clipboard. As he watched the girl went through a strange set of emotions. First she relaxed, then tensed, then her shoulders slumped just a little.
"No, I'm Pippa, you want me to get my dad?" answered the girl, a hint of dejection in her voice.
Ethan flipped through the sheets, and found the girl's name. "Pippa, PI rating of A...huh, weird. Okay, that's something I need to talk to him about..."
"DAD!" Pippa called, not waiting for an actual answer, not looking away from the two BFA men for even a moment, as if watching them might prevent them doing something.
It took a few seconds but Jock McArdle wandered into the hallway, beer in hand. He was a burly barrel chested man with a receding hairline where white streaked his oily black hair with matching long beard. "Hey Steve, little early for pickup isn't it?" he asked, taking a swig of beer.
Steve grinned, "Sorry Jock, rookie here hasn't seen your place, thought a little bit of an informal inspection might be due?" answered Steve, gesturing at Ethan with his thumb.
Jock took another swig of beer, and gave what might generously pass for a harrumph. "Fine, I've got nothing else to do today. We can do a tour of the sublevels, show your rookie a real sight."
"Sub...levels?" Ethan said incredulously.
"Oh yeah, three of them under the property. You know I started this place with just one slave? Turns out that with a few trades, and a bit of waiting around I've built them into a whole little business empire. Can't even impregnate them all myself any more...but it turns out when you offer the winning local sports teams access to a free brothel..."
"...you're telling me....there is a slave farm under this property..."
Jock took another swig of beer and smiled, "Okay, lad, let's start this inspection, maybe introduce you to some of the perks of being part of the BFA...", he said, before turning to Pippa. "You can go and crate your sister up for the slavefair auction while we're busy."
"Yes, sir." replied Pippa in a voice cold enough to freeze the air.
Ethan flicked through his clipboard again "Actually, before the tour I've been meaning to say, shouldn't this one be coming along as well, she's had her PI..."